Compare Dulce Et Decorum Est and Refugee Blues Both the poems are based at periods of War, but the difference being is that ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ depicts the very physical suffering of the soldiers in the muddy, bloody trenches of the First World War, (The Great War), and is written for the purpose of educating those on the home front, who are naïve to the suffering experienced by the soldiers on the front line, people referred to as his friends, who must be informed about the old lie, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Amore’. ‘Refugee Blues’ however is a less intense poem, which deals more with the emotional suffering of the Jews, although the Jews in this poem must also cope with the constant fear of physical hardship at the hands of …show more content…
But Owen attempts, in a way to blame all of these things on the generals. For instance when Owen refers to the General as ‘my friend’, he seems to be willing the general to stop lying to the younger generations, and whisking them of to war to die in a pointless battle. He also highlights the injuries on the men, this shows the commitment of the soldiers, that they are still willing to fight. In both poems there is a strong and effective message at the end of each stanza, in Refugee Blues Auden attempts to make the end of every stanza into a conversation, between a man and his wife, he does this by making the man say his emphatic line, also the man after ever every stanza explains some of the feelings felt by him and his lover. I prefer ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’, as a poem, because of the powerful language. But I feel that Refugee Blues is more relevant to myself therefore I find it more appealing to the situation I would be in as a civilian in a war, therefore I prefer ‘Refugee Blues’ as a
Both of these war poems tell us about the side effects of war, however I personally believe that ‘The Manhunt’ presents human suffering in a much more effective manner due to the fact that in ‘The Manhunt’, the soldiers own wife is trying to help him out, therefore this makes ‘The Manhunt’ much more personal, therefore it is much more effective.
This quote links to the point of brutality on many lives and indicates the innocence of the soldiers. When analysing the poem it is made aware that Owen presents the reader with details of what people felt and heard. The words ‘dropping softly behind’ suggest that the soldiers had heard the gas-shells so much that they had become used to it. It also points to the fact that their trenches were based so far, that they were distant from all the shelling. Also Owen says ‘innocent tongues’ as the soldiers did not deserve this. This links back to the fact that everyone should know the truth about war, if everyone knew then nobody would make the mistake of going there and dying in such a horrific state.
Wilfred Owen is almost begging someone (probably the ones who recruit the youth) to tell the world the truth about war, how tarrying everyone is and how difficult is to go on, to keep the hope. For the soldiers there are no dreams of a noble death that everyone will remember through stories. There are no legends that will become myth in their fighting, but real people and real horrific death. The concept of “heroism” that exists from classical literature is not longer valid.
This all aims at promoting the emotion of pity, to empathize upon the suffering forced upon the soldiers that Owen wishes the audience to feel, to recognize the irony on the glorification of war.
Owen uses the contrast of the soldiers’ state pre-war and post-war to highlight just how much the soldier has lost through going to war. Physically, pre-war, the soldier is described as ‘younger than his youth,’ and has an ‘artist silly for his face.’ Suggesting that his beauty is worth capturing permanently in paint. The words ‘younger ‘and ‘youth’ emphasise this man’s innocence and boyishness, the tautology places emphasis on how young he is thus outlining his immaturity before the war and making his loss at war even more tragic. The contrast once he has returned where Owen
In today’s society we face a lot of issues, but there is one issue that stands out to me most. Which these two poems address, that is injustice towards other race in America. In Langston Hughes “I Too” and “The Weary Blues” the trouble of unjust towards African Americans, weigh on the speaker’s mind. Each poem reflecting on the same issue just a little bit differently.
The first poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est”, discusses many ideas pertaining to war. For instance, in the first stanza, the author talks about their experiences in war. The poem states “Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, till on the haunting flares we turned our backs”. This quote from the poem helps illustrate the author’s experiences or what it would be like in war. In the second stanza, they describe their challenges and struggles during war. In the poem, the author mentions “Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, but someone still was yelling out and stumbling and flound’ring like a man in fire”. This insert from the poem helps demonstrate the how war will make you feel when you start to see everything falling apart. Finally, in the last stanza, the author tells how their troubles and triumphs changes them. The poem states “And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, his hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; my friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some
This image is definitely not the glamorous picture of glory that, say army recruitment presents; worse, the soldiers are doing worse than civilians. As soon as the next stanza “[m]en marched asleep. Many had lost their boots” (5). They have lost their usual awareness and move mechanically; that doesn’t sound appealing! It gets worse: “[b]ut limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind” (6). So now they’re limping, apparently wounded, covered in blood, and can’t even see? It worsens further, “[d]runk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots/ Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind” (7-8). The soldiers are so exhausted it incapacitates them, and they can no longer hear the bullets being fired. This poem sounds like a distorted nightmare, except the speaker is living it, and even reliving the torment of the soldier’s death while he is unconscious. Owen’s wording expresses that the soldiers are merely men, deteriorating and inconceivably overwhelmed the opposite of positive war poetry containing glory and honor.
First, Owen uses logos to explain the horrible experience in WWI. The tile of this poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” means, it is honorable and sweet to die for own country, (Poetry Foundation), but the experience was too depressing. Owen uses the stanza like "But someone still was yelling…… man in fire or lime”, the ones who weren’t able to rich out their mask were choking and stumbling from toxic gas. Plus, a gas was all they needed to wipe out the field. (line 11,12) In line 5 and 6 he says, “Men marched asleep”, right before the gas blew off, some solders were men were sleep, as other limped their bloody feet as they lost their boots in battle
seems to base his poem on myth because overall he says that it is good
Owen personifies death, giving him readily identifiable human characteristics as spitting and coughing, but in a way that accords with the gruesome nature of death since he spits “bullets” and coughs “shrapnel.” What is really striking is that the soldiers welcome death's claim of their lives; they “chorused if he sang aloft” and “whistled while he shaved [them] with his scythe.” Although evoking the death-as-a-reaper conceptualization,
Owen manifests the soldiers’ ferocious emotions through their guns to demonstrate the dehumanization they experienced when killing someone. When Wilfred says “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? / - Only the monstrous anger of the guns,” it strips the soldiers of their identity and humanity just as killing someone in war did to them (1-2). By taking away the soldiers’ identities and channeling their emotions through their weaponry and deeming them “monstrous” it makes it more difficult for the audience to develop a personal connection to the soldiers and their feelings, which is exactly what Owen wants. People back home during the war could not possibly relate or put themselves in the shoes of these soldiers, which Owen highlights to the reader through this method. To be able to kill someone, they had
“Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen takes its title from the Latin phrase that means “It is sweet and becoming to die for one’s country”. Quite often the barbaric nature of war is over romanticized and the author uses this title satirically to mock the public’s deluded view of war. The poem graphically describes the hell soldiers have to endure in their everyday battle for survival. These are tragedies of war that only veterans can fully understand and Wilfred Owen tries to enlighten the general public of these tragedies through imagery and similes throughout his poem.
Owen’s poem has the clear intention of showing the true nature of war to the reader, which is mainly achieved by contrasting reality against the ways in which war is so
There are several image groups used in this poem, two of which I will be reviewing. The first image group is “Sleep or Dreams”. Owen often refers to many subconscious states like the afore mentioned one, the reason why he uses these references so frequently is that war is made apparent to the reader as being a subconscious state as the realities often seem to be too hard to except, an example which backs up my opinion is: “Men marched asleep”. The poet often refers to dreams. I believe part of the reason for this is that by dreaming you are escaping from the physical reality and surroundings and due to the horror and constant threat of death the soldiers would constantly be dreaming of home and their loved ones. However,